Sunday, November 15, 2015

The #1 Thing Writers Want from Readers

Have you ever wondered what a writer’s biggest dream is?
Honestly, many writers would like to have their stories end up on the bestseller list, receive a
reward, and have a movie adaptation made. While these may be wonderful goals, more
often than not, they may not happen, and instead many writers end up with more
rejection letters than bestsellers. But that doesn’t mean those stories are
worthless.

This month I’ll be focusing on things that readers should say to writers. So on
the one hand, writers have struggles within the publishing market, and on the
other hand they might get “But it’s a good story!” or “I really enjoyed it!”
from friends in family. While purely positive feedback can be nice, it isn’t
always beneficial when it conflicts with rejection or criticism.

Here are just a few things readers should keep in mind when
talking to writers:

Friends should encourage their writer friends, not flatter
them.

This has two dimension to it.

1) While it’s good to encourage your writer friends to
submit and resubmit, sometimes stories have mistakes. Though
many friends are tempted to skim over this and assure the writer that their
story is fantastic no matter what, please don’t do this. Consider sports for
example. If an athlete makes a mistake, like tripping, and a coach notices,
friends shouldn’t pass this off as the coach being unable to see how great the athlete is. If there’s
anything more harmful to a writer than rejection letters it’s dishonesty. Leave
it up to a writer’s parents to tell him/her that he/she is the best writer
since Shakespeare. (Thanks for all your encouragement, Mom!)

2) A writer’s artistic style will not always match up with
every audience. This may cause rejection letters or bad reviews. If your writer
friend is discouraged, it’s okay to encourage them, but it’s not beneficial
to slam whoever turned down/critiqued a story. Leave the harsh words to
villains and people who write poor book reviews.

The #1 thing writers want from readers is honest feedback.

For published authors, this may include an honest book review. Even
if you don’t give a book 5 stars, providing constructive criticism can mean the
world to a writer. Besides, book reviews are a good means of publicity. For unpublished
authors, you can still help your writers by being honest. Who knows, if you
provide enough support and critical feedback, you might even get to be a beta
reader and get a sneak peek at a book before publication.

Writers may be wondering why particular stories are rejected or why some stories do better than others, but they don’t usually get such feedback from publishers. So they have to rely on you,
dear readers (yes, and editors too), to tell them not only which
story is good but why you believe that.
Writers should enjoy constructive criticism. And if they don’t, they haven’t
received enough of it yet.